The semi-finalists go large

After six weeks of intensive cooking, we have the six 2007 semi-finalists for this year's MasterChef goes Large namely Ben, Steven, Harriet, William, Hannah and David. I was happy with the first four semi-finalists but I wanted Hayley (I think that's her name) to beat Hannah last week and this week I favoured Gillian rather than the eventual winner David. I don't really know why but I just thought Gillian's barley and wild hare risotto and partridge with my new favourite salsify was more interesting than David's herb-crusted halibut and pigeon salad though only slightly and I guess it was a close run thing. D wanted David to win so she was happy with decision.
D, LLcT and myself like to try and work out who we think will win each week and are very pleased when we are proved right on our first decision. The rule is you have to choose your eventual winner before you've seen them cook, to make it a little harder. The entrants this week were all back from last year's competition and I was surprised how many I actually recognised.
Next Monday the six semi-finalists immediately get reduced to four by John and Gregg. How tough to get so far and then only get one more day to cook. Because I favoured the first four our of the six finalists, I guess I am rooting for them but they are all great cooks and I will be glued to the screen to see how they fare. I will be in the US for most of the final so I will have to catch up on Sky+ on my return.
I noticed that many other blogs have been talking about this show as I guess some play our game of trying to predict the winner but I found one blog who used the Invention Test mystery bag of ingredients each day to make their own random meal in 40 minutes and was really impressed by such interaction. That's a real commitment to a TV show!
She did it with last year's daily ingredients though and unfortunately was too busy to recreate the experiment again this year. THough it must have been a real challenge and she did say how strangely obsessed she became. I will have to see if anyone has painstakingly listed all the mystery ingredients this time and maybe I could join in, or at least I could plan a few virtual menus.